IAS machine or IAS computer

IAS machine or IAS computer created at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

Detail map of Princeton, New Jersey, United States Overview map of Princeton, New Jersey, United States

A: Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Key Developments in von Neumann's IAS Electronic Computer Project

3/1946 to 1947
Julian Bigelow (far left) at The Princeton Institute for Advanced Study with (left to right:) Herman Goldstine, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and John von Neumann.

Julian Bigelow (far left) in front of the IAS machine at The Princeton Institute for Advanced Study with (left to right:) Herman Goldstine, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and John von Neumann.

In March 1946 John von Neumann attempted to set up an electronic stored-program computer project at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton. He tried to hire Pres Eckert, but Eckert refused the job, preferring to go into the computer business with John Mauchly as the Electronic Control Company.

In June 1946 engineer Julian Bigelow, who previously had collaborated with Norbert Wiener at MIT, joined von Neumann and Herman Goldstine at the Princeton IAS Electronic Computer Project. He was to a large extent responsible for implementing von Neumann's stored-program concepts.

At Princeton in June 1946 Arthur W. Burks, von Neumann, and Goldstine issued their Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument, discussing ideas to be incorporated into the stored-program computer at the IAS.

Around June 1947 Julian Bigelow and his team at Princeton redesigned the IAS machine to include error checking and parallel processing, essential features of what became known as the von Neumann architecture.

 

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